How to Make a Safer School

Lisa Hamp is a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, in which 32 people died at the hands of student Seung-Hui Cho. Hamp and her classmates lived because they barricaded their classroom door. “The door did not have a lock,” Hamp says. “We used a desk and table to keep the shooter from entering.”

Hamp recently joined a group in Washington, D.C., lobbying for funding to make U.S. public schools safer from such assaults. She joined representatives from organizations such as the Secure Schools Alliance and Safe and Sound Schools, as well as the security firm Allegion. These organizations have allies in Congress: Representatives Susan Brooks, a Republican from Indiana, and Rick Larsen, a Democrat from Washington, head the Congressional School Safety Caucus.